Accent - Yay or Nay

[TheManager]

Well, I've been working on my novel for a while now and I've come across that tricky part that writers get stuck with.

Writing.

To be more specific, dialogue. As I come from Barbados the story alternates between there and another world. Most people have never been to Barbados and Barbadians have a very peculiar dialect. I know some writers make their characters talk with accents (e.g Terry Prachett's Wee Free Men) but they use a fairly recognisable accent, in this case Scottish.

My question is whether or not to add the dialect in the dialogue to add culture or leave it out and keep the comprehensibility. I could really use some help on this one and I know Chrons is the best place to ask so please give me your opinion. Thanks.

[andrew.v.spencer]

No. Describe it, maybe give an example voiced through an outside character. Perhaps drop in the odd bit of unusually syntax or words, but sprinkle, not deluge.

I find a written accent off putting and painful to read often, if you're translating or near-translating the book can be way too much of a chore.

[Lith]

If it's an accent you're familiar with, then by all means, put it in! It's important to be familiar with the accent; otherwise you could end up putting in too much "typical" marker words in, and too few real changes in dialogue. And I wouldn't worry about putting too much in in the first draft; you'll probably be able to tell when you reread if it's too much.

[pyan]

Can you post a couple of very short examples, Manager, preferably the same passage in "normal English" then the same thing using Barbadian dialect?

[ray gower]

Personally I like to see flavour in the characters I'm reading about. I find it much easier to learn about them. That doesn't mean I want to read a thick dollop of dialect slang though.

On the whole I don't think Barbadian is too bad. Of those I've met, their English and diction has always been quite clear, unlike say Glaswegian where words tend to roll into each other and only have a passing resemblance to English anyhow. The characteristics are in sentence structure and tone. So here I would suggest you can afford to deploy a good sprinkling of that structure, just enough so the reader is always reminded who is who

[Daniel Hetberg]

Would it be an option to have the character talk with that accent when talking to people from "home" and use normal english otherwise, possibly described as still carrying a bit of his slang?

I know I tend to fall into this behaviour, and the reason to do it in a book would be that it's terribly annoying for the most part to _read_ a dialect, especially if the character talks a lot. Dialect is something you only hear usually, but reading it is a real chore, because it's constant decyphering by asking yourself "what would that sound like".

[Peter Graham]

I'd say definitely yay, but use a light touch.

Accents and dialogue can, in my view, help characterisation to a certain point, but go beyond that point and you undo all of the good work. If deciphering the accent means that the reader has to break their flow, you have probably gone too far.

The light touch can be expressed in a couple of ways:-

1. The odd word. This is what I prefer. Just slot in the odd dialect word or phonetic spelling of a word. Enough to give the reader the flavour without making a piece too difficult to read.

"I'm going to jump that gate" (standard English)

"I'm goin' ter lowp yon yat" (actual phonetic rendition of rural Cumbrian)

"I'm goin' ter jump that gate" (light touch).


2. Use of cod accents. This is more common, but less convincing, in my view. There are a number of uber-accents that crop up time and time again, such as the big fat Texan drawl ("hey, y'all"), the sassy New York twang (in which "coffee" invariably comes out as "kwarfy"), the cheeky Londoner ("gorblimey guv'nor"), the tartan Scot ("hoots mon") or Oirish (punctuate with "bejaysus" and use word order of the sort favoured by Yoda).

Actual speakers of any of these accents will rightly say that they are hopelessly inaccurate, but they are at least recognisable to a reader. In many ways, they can be hard to avoid if you are doing accents in your book - very few people can properly render accents other than their own.

Regards,

Peter

[TheManager]

Wow. Thanks guys. I have a pretty good idea of what I'm going to do now.

Add some dialect but not too much that it becomes a chore to the reader.Enough to capture the essence of the language.

With regards to Pyan, my question's been answere but there's really no need.

[TheManager]

With regards to Pyan. I found an article in the newspaper that is as good an example as any. I'll post it even though my question was answered.

In Bajan:
Dear Nesta,
How yuh doin', girl-chile? Imagine - at de time I writn' you (whichin is Tuesduh mornin'), I cyahn even gi' yuh de election results 'cause um is Pollin' Day all like now an' by de time results come in, dis letter would be 'pon de way to you a'ready.


In English:
Dear Nesta,
How are you doing, girl? Imagine - at the time I'm writing you (which is Tuesday morning), I can't even give you the election results because it is Polling Day even now and by the time the results come in this letter will be on the way to you already.

[power to the J]

Originally Posted by TheManager

With regards to Pyan. I found an article in the newspaper that is as good an example as any. I'll post it even though my question was answered.

In Bajan:
Dear Nesta,
How yuh doin', girl-chile? Imagine - at de time I writn' you (whichin is Tuesduh mornin'), I cyahn even gi' yuh de election results 'cause um is Pollin' Day all like now an' by de time results come in, dis letter would be 'pon de way to you a'ready.


In English:
Dear Nesta,
How are you doing, girl? Imagine - at the time I'm writing you (which is Tuesday morning), I can't even give you the election results because it is Polling Day even now and by the time the results come in this letter will be on the way to you already.

Don't do the first. That was pretty aggrivating to read. Just say, "she had this sort of accent" or something. If there are any phrases that people use over there that aren't used elsewhere, than I suggest you put as many of those in there as you can, because the way you have the dialog now is annoying, hate to say it.

[Green]

As always, it's a matter of execution and personal preference. Iain M Banks wrote an entire main character's POV phonetically in the book Feersum Endjinn (Fearsome Engine). Once you realised Banks has a Scottish accent, it becomes easy to read and adds a bit of something different.

As for the example posted above, well, it's difficult to decipher at first, but I think after a while it would become second nature. As long as the book/story was good, I'd have no problem with it. Doesn't necessarily mean I'd prefer it like that (couldn't say unless I'd read the book), but I wouldn't have a problem with it.

[pyan]

Yes, if all the dialogue in the book was written in that dialect, it would get a bit slow to decipher - but if it's used for effect, and in small doses, it would be interesting.

Tried to read Feersum Endjinn once....it remains about the only IMB that I've given up on....

[Green]

It's definitely not his best I don't think that's due to the phonetic stuff, though. It just lacked the scale of his Culture novels.

Actually, all his non-Culture novels pale in comparison!

pyan, did you know he has a new Culture novel out next month? It's called Matter. Can't wait

[pyan]

Yep, February 27th, I believe. I've a couple of book tokens squirrelled away...